Freedom House's recently released report on digital freedom, which ranked Morocco 2nd in the MENA region, ignores the Kingdom's positive press freedom indicators and its commitment to international standards in the field of press freedom and the development of digital media, said the Ministry of Culture and Communication-Department of Communication.

07 November 2018

The ministry responded, in a statement, to the report which ranked Morocco among the partially free countries in terms of digital freedom, by presenting inaccurate and biased data.

Regarding the freedom indicator, the Ministry noted that this process has been strengthened by adopting the press and publishing law. Also the guarantees of journalism practice have been reinforced under the provision on the legal protection of confidentiality of sources within the framework of the Press and Publishing law, it said.

In terms of access to the Internet and the promotion of digital journalism, legal guarantees have been enacted, said the ministry, adding that the freedom of the digital press is constitutionally guaranteed. This positive development is mirrored in the increase of the number of portals ending with ".ma", which jumped from 73 in 2016 to 129 in 2017.

The number of journalists of e-papers has reached 349 in 2017 against 98 in 2015, it added.

The ministry went on to say that Morocco is distinguished by a diversity and a total freedom to launch electronic newspapers and no case of ban or seizure was registered this year.

The ministry emphasized that the ranking of Freedom House is devoid of accuracy and objectivity, lacks arguments and does not take into account the positive indicators that helps with the ranking of Morocco among countries enjoying digital freedom.

Last modified : 07 November 2018

ROYAL MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.